Australia (woo-hoo, we're first!)

Alphanaut - Queensland; (Matthew Hall, Murray Antill) Own webpage here. Murray is better known for playing around as Stormboy, a pounding techno artist.

Don Peyote - Mullumbimby, N.S.W; (Yvon Mounier) has MP3.COM site here, and MP3.COM.AU site here. Uses a vast range of musical ideas and sounds to create unique trance music.

Dreamchild - Melbourne; (John Vougioukas) also Mindsect, has MP3.COM site here, and own site here.

Fractal Glider - Melbourne; (Paul McCosh) well known around Melbourne for playing live, usually on the same lineup as Sugar, and other Green Ant regulars.

Ganga Giri - Melbourne (now); Ganga is world-reknown for his amazing didgeridoo performances. Website here.

Northcore - Melbourne; (Carl J Gibbons) also Little Loki, has MP3.COM site here, has MP3.COM.AU site here, own webpage here.

Psyburbia - Melbourne; (Barrie Bardoe) Previously called URB, and was well known for being more industrial styled, but changed his style and was finally picked up by Matsuri. Success story! Has URB page here.

Psyko Disko - Melbourne; (Steve Psyko, Fred Disko, Ollie Olsen) Three of the originals who've been around forever.

Ray Castle - Byron Bay; also Masaray, Rhythmestic. Has his own website here. Just try to understand the guy.

Shaolin Wooden Men - ?; mysterious outfit, said to be of Hong Kong origin, my guess = The Visitors

Snake Thing - Byron Bay?; (Nick Taylor) also Prana, Rhythmestic, Reflector, Parasonix, and head of Edgecore label.

Space Tribe - Mullumbimby, N.S.W; Olli Wisdom, who has travelled the world playing his unique style of thumping trance. Signed to the Spirit Zone label (Germany).

Sugar - Melbourne; (Felix Hamer) another from the prolific Green Ant crew.

The Visitors - Melbourne; (Ollie Olsen, Andrew Till) Psy Harmonics bosses, and they know their stuff. Ollie ha been involved in many important projects, and has been influential in the Melbourne experimental scene, while Andrew has travelled the world DJing his unique hard psytrance style.

Third Eye - Melbourne; (Ollie Olsen, Gus Till, Geoffrey Hales) legendary in their day. Gus went on to become a part of Slinky Wizard (UK), while the other two collaborated with many other artists. Just check any Psy Harmonics compilation CD for proof.

Denmark

KoxBox (Frank A, Peter Candy, Ian Ion)

England/U.K.

Ayahuasca (Dino Psaras, Joti Sidhu, Steve Ronan)

Cosmosis (Bill Halsey, Jeremy van Kampen-left) Official webpage here. 'Intergalactic' [2000] sure is one mature Psytrance CD.

Cydonia (Dino Psaras, Steve Ronan, Ian Rive) one of the darkest acts around. Their 'Fear Of A Red Planet' CD was one of the highlights for psytrance in 1999.

Darshan (Grant Collins, Mark Robinson-left) atmospheric trance

Doof (N Barber, Simon Posford)

Eat Static - (Merv Pepler, Joie Hinton) Official webpage here. Have been around for a lot longer than the psytrance scene, and have been known for their innovative music and continual commitment to touring.

Green Nuns of the Revolution (Richard Trevor, Matt Coldrick, Neil Cowley) relentless yet fun act who can be found on every compilation CD around (almost), and good to see live too - entertaining and enjoyable. See rave flyers for more. CD 'Rock Bitch Mafia' [97] is a classic out on Flying Rhino Records.

Hallucinogen (Simon Posford; also Doof, Sphongle, Celtic Cross, Beast) one of the originators of the psytrance sound. Relentless pounding rhythms and weirdo sounds that really do sound 'twisted'. Was enlightening to see live too. Not only does he DJ but he plays 100% live too with all his equipment. Has 2 solid full-length CDs available too which are a necessity; 'Twisted' [95] and 'The Lone Deranger' [97]; 'LSD' and 'Spiritual Antiseptic' are 2 songs to be inspired by.

Juno Reactor (Ben Watkins, Mike Maquire, Walderbeck, Johann Bley) prolific group which has been around for ages, and manages to stay abreast the current musical trends. Not quite psytrance or goa, but relevent nonetheless. The 'Bible of Dreams' CD [97] is a must, while 'Beyond the Infinite' [96] contains some great songs too, like 'Rotorblade' and 'Guardian Angel'. From Blue Room Released. 'Shango' [2000] is the long awaited CD from them, along with the single 'Pistolero'.

Man With No Name (Martin Freeland) should be called Man Who Can Do No Wrong, as every song he produces pumps and so does every remix he touches. Two killer CDs that could well be classics; 'Moment of Truth' [96] and 'Earth Moving The Sun' [98]. 'Teleportation' [2000] contained some remixes as well as some remixes of other artists tracks.

Manmademan (Paul Baguley, Sonya Bailey)

Phreaky (Dino Psaras?)

Psychaos (Joti Sidhu)

Quirk (Mark Allen, Tim Healey) Mark Allen is one influential DJ, being involved in the Return to the Source experience

Shakta (Seb Taylor) First CD 'Silicon Trip' [97] is a high priority for anyone serious about psytrance, whereas the second CD 'The Enlightened Ape' [99] is good , but lacks the punch and razor sharpness of the first. Check Dragonfly Records for more.

Slinky Wizard (George Barker, Ronnie Biggs, Dominic Lamb, Gus Till) producing probably the trickiest psytrance around, SW's songs are unique for their twisting turning articulation(!)

Technossomy (James Monro) -

Terra Ferma (Claudio Giussani)

The Art of Trance (Simon Berry)

The Infinity Project (R Rothfield, G Wood, Simon Posford) Started in 1989 by Raja Ram Rothfield and Grahame Wood. Simon Posford joined soon after and since then the Psychedelic trance scene has been blessed with many wonderful new sounds. Simon Posford (Hallucinogen) founded his own label (Twisted) while Raja Ram and Grahame Wood started TIP records with Richard Bloor and Andre (somehow associated with Growling Mad Scientists). Traditionally TIP releases have always been innovative and range from hard raw psy trance to soundscape ambient (eg Mystery of the Yeti). TIP records have a number of great technically sound artists signed to them who appear to be producing their own special genre of trance characterised by hard beats and crazy electronic off samples. Most notable for this style are Growling Mad Scientists (Bansi and Riktam), Psychopod (Frank Madsen, Orion, Disko), Lotus Omega (Scrimizzi and Amato) and System Busters (Growling Mad Scientists and Lotus Omega). Simon Posford has teamed up with Growling Mad Scientists before and created "Growlmonizer" (featured on TIP singles 3 1998)

Union Jack (Simon Berry, Claudio Giussani)

Zodiac Youth (M Glover, Youth, Zodiak Mindwarp)

France

Absolom (Christophe Drouillet)

Blue Planet Corporation (Gabriel and Sebastian Masurel, Christophe Le Bras)

Deedrah/Dado (F. Dado Holyszewski) - prolific remixer and psytrance artist

Total Eclipse (Serge Souque, Stephane Holweck, Loic Vanpoucke) pioneers who have been around for a long time, and have been known to alter their style. Their latest disc 'Access Denied' [99] was proof of this.

Transwave (Christophe Drouillet, F. Dado Holyszewski) have some truly inspirational psytrance songs; look for 'Cycles of Life' for proof. 1996 was a good year for them with 'Helium' and 'Phototropic', which contained the MWNN tribute 'Land of Freedom'.

Germany

Cygnus-X (Matthias Hoffman)

Der Dritte Raum (Andreas Krueger) apart from the awful "Hale Bop' of 1999, DDR has been known to produce some real trance.

Electric Universe (Boris Blenn, M Dressler, DJ Sangeet)

Planet Ben (Ben Wierzoch)

S.U.N. Project (Matthias Rumoeller, H-Man McCoy, Marco Menichelli) unbelievable ue of electric guitar and relentless goa grooves. Totally underrated band, who should/could be a lot more successful. First CD "Macrophage' [98] out on Spirit Zone, contains the excellent 'Sexdrugs & acidtrance II'. Second CD "Zwork" is being searched out! Other CDs 'S.U.N. Project' and 'Drosphilia'. Website here.

Tarsis - (Sebastian Kruger, Linus Wessel, Bruno Voss) 1 album "Vacuum". Signed to the Spiritzone label.

X-Dream (Marcus C Maichel, Jan Mueller = Rough & Rush) legends revered and praised by other acts; get the CD 'Radio' [98] to find out why, out on Blue Room Released. Other CDs 'Trip to Trancesylvania' and 'We created our own happiness'.

Israel

Astral Projection (Lior Perlmutter, Avi Nissim) Prolific mainstays who never disappoint. Eight CDs released and all are evidence that trance can survive by innovation, 'Trust in Trance I, II & III' [94,95,95], 'SFX - the unreleased tracks 89-94', 'The Astral Files' [96], 'Dancing Galaxy' [97], and 'Another World' [99], out on Transient/Trust in Trance/Phonokol Records. Here's an unofficial website. Latest double CD 'In the mix' [2000] was a dancefloor-friendly compilation of remixes of their catalogue.

California Sunshine - (Har-El Prussky, DJ Miko) don't know what happened to this act. New CD coming?

Chakra - (Rami Shpira)

Infected Mushroom (Amit Duvdevani, Erez Aizen) Another dark trance act with much promise, the debut CD 'The Gathering' might well have been the CD of 1999, official website here, unofficial website here. Out on BNE (Brand New Entertainment).

MFG - (Guy Zekrel, Aharon Segal) MFG were perhaps the only Israeli trance act to successfully combine psytrance musical ideas with fat sounds, rather than harsh cutting noisy digital sounds like the others.

Oforia - (Ofer Dikovsky)

Passenger - (Guy Zekrel)

Sandman - (Itzik Levi)

Space Cat (Avi Algranati) debut CD 'Beam Me Up' was another gem in 1999, and contained many important collaborations, like Simon Posford (Hallucinogen), Dado & Christophe (Transwave), Erez Aizen (Infected Mushroom) and others. From BNE label.

Tandu - (Ofer Dikovsky, Marco Goren)

Italy

Etnica -

Growling Mad Scientists -

Pleaidians - (Max Lanfranconi, Maurizio Begotti, Carlo Paterno, Andrea Rizzo) Two albums released "Identified Flying Objects" and "Family of Light". Signed to dragonfly records. Named after 'Pleiadians' - a human sibling race to Earth humans. Both Earth and Pleiadian humans are descendants of Lyrans, the original inhabitants of Earth. The Pleiadians race come from 'Pleiades' a small group of stars within the Taurus constellation (550 LY).

Japan

Kuro -

Masa (Masayuki Kurihara) CD 'Just Inside' contains some raw goatrance, and has the biggest arsenal of equipment imaginable.

Masaray (Masayuki Kurihara, Ray Castle) 'Cosmic Trancer' on Psy Harmonics is a twisty enjoyable journey into goatrance, when it was still developing.

Prana (Tsuyoshi Suzuki, Nick Taylor) undeniably seminal act fronted by the charismatic and jet-setting Tsuyoshi, founder of Matsuri. Had many guests over the years, and the 2 CDs 'Cyclone' [96] and 'Geomantik' [97] are quintessential must-haves.

Ree-K (Rie Kurihara) 'Yammataikoku' on Psy Harmonics was an important release; she is possibly the only female artist. Her own webpage here.

Sweden

Atmos

Dreamweaver -

Miranda (Miranda Silvergreen) - own page here.

Subcouds - own page here.

???

Bypass Unit

Johann (Bley)

Xerox